We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Squats or Should I Say Leagues of Votann? Both.

So I am a die-hard Squat fan boy. I have written elsewhere that I was introduced to Warhammer 40k in 1st Edition through either the Harlequins or the Squats (it’s been so long that I can’t remember exactly which came first, but they were within months of each other.) I played Squats until they were discontinued, and when they were discontinued I switched to Imperial Guard so I could use my Squats as proxies. I love the Squats.

I still have my old 1st Edition Compendium that goes through all of the original Squats rules, but I’m sad to report that the only model that has survived the last 30 years is a single Squat Trike. It’s an awesome Squat Trike, and something that I had wished they would have brought back, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s Talk About the Squats: All the Squats Released So Far

When the Squats were first announced I posted a list of all of the old things about the Squats that I wanted to see return. And some of it has and some of it hasn’t. But I am, almost overwhelmingly, pleased with how Games Workshop is handling the Squats. So let’s talk about all the Squats released so far.

So, starting with the Hearthkyn, who appear to be the standard troops of the Squats. They are different from the Squats of old. (And, it needs to be said that they’re NOT Squats. They’re Leagues of Votann. Personally, I think that Games Workshop threaded the needle very well by bringing back regular Squats–we’ll look at them in a moment–and introducing something new and different.) But the big differences from Squats of old are the armor is not the classic quilted armor and they lack the bulky helmets and lasguns.

But they have done some pretty impressive things with these guys, and they’ve put in some Easter eggs that I love. For example, in the picture above, that gun that the top Squat is holding looks REALLY like the silhouette of a T’au gun, and if we’re going to go down the road of assuming that the Leagues of Votann are actually the Demiurg (who were an alien race that were friends of the T’au in Battlefleet Gothic) then it makes sense that they would share some technology.

In fact, I love everything about the technology swapping in all of the Leagues of Votann. In all the Squats released so far, we’ve seen a combination of Imperium tech with alien tech with tech that is uniquely their own. And I love that. And, that brings me to the next guy.

The Leagues of Votann have Ironkin, and the Ironkin are essentially equals. At the very least, the Ironkin fight alongside the Hearthkyn as equals. There’s a very Kastellan Robots look to the dome of the Ironkin’s heads but otherwise they look very similar to the other Votann. This guy I find to be a little funny because I have no idea how he’s going to play in the game, unless he’s something akin to a techmarine, fixing stuff when it breaks down. But I LOVE that the Leagues of Votann are distant enough from the Imperium that they use artificial intelligence.

But let’s jump to Necromunda, because this is where we see Squats being Squats, not Squats as they evolved into the Leagues of Votann. Of all of the Squats released so far, these are the only ones that are available to buy (and yes, I have bought them and are waiting for them to come in the mail.) (Buy from Element Games)

So here we have the Necromunda Squats, and I have to say that I did NOT picture the Squats as coming out of Necromunda, but I think it was a very smart move on Games Workshop’s behalf. They may not have the quilted armor, but they do have the bulky helmets with visors, and those scream Squats.

Aesthetically, I love the look of these guys because they retain a lot of that miner look that the Squats were known for–the Squats were notoriously blue collar and all of their gear was in some way related to mining. I also love the fact that every single one of these Necromunda Squats have double barrels on their bolt guns, and I can’t for the life of me figure out the mechanics of how they work. (But Games Workshop has never been one to worry too much about the mechanics of their guns.)

And then there’s this thing, which I thought was going to be the Squats’ nod to Exo Armor, and I liked it but didn’t love it. It looks more like a dreadnought/walker than exo-armor. Little did I know that there was exo-armor around the corner.

For what it is, though, glossing over the disappointment that it’s not a big round ball with legs, I love that it keeps up the We’re Mining But Also Fighting vibe of the Squats. There’s enough of the Squat’s head visible to remind you that it’s actually a Squat and not some other Necromunda beastie, but different enough that it looks like it could be lots of fun to kitbash with.

But, like I said, Exo-Armor

These guys look terrific. They are round in the way that Exo-Armor ought to be round, but with the new modern look of Warhammer 40k which is less cartoonish and more…I don’t want to say realistic, because nothing here is realistic, but more hypothetically realistic. Let’s take a closer look.

I love the sheer bulk and girth of this guy. His shoulders are massive, his legs are massive, his hands are massive. Even the chest and abdominal plate seem like they jut out pretty far to add to the mass.

It also needs to be said that the inclusion of the runes (if you can call them runes?) on the armor is top notch. They add a kind of ornamentation that, if this were the Imperium, would surely be skulls. I admit I’m not 100% sold on the plasma blade and that’s mainly because it looks awfully thick. (I realize that it’s hard to make thin plastic and not have it break, but Games Workshop has made thinner swords before. Not everything about this guy needs to be bulky.)

I’m not showing close ups of all of them, but I do love that there are female heads included (with all of the Leagues of Votann that we’ve seen so far) and that one of the female heads has some kind of ritual scarring on her face? Not sure what it is, but I like it.

But… now we come to this.

I don’t like it. I really don’t. The hovering of this trike does not gel well with everything else we know about the Leagues of Votann. Yes, they have high technology, but they’re big chunky boys who smash and thunder, and having them on a hover bike seems a little too much like Games Workshop was trying to honor the original trikes without copying them. And I don’t like it.

Over all, though, of all the Squats released so far, this one is the only model that I actively dislike, and I could see myself buying all of the others. Were I a better kitbasher I could see myself buying this trike and trying to put wheels on it. We’ll see what happens.

Can’t wait to see what comes next! I’m ready for VEHICLES.